In medical technology, it is known to operate medical apparatuses, such as dialysis apparatuses, via remote control. It has hitherto proven to be disadvantageous that in each case a specific remote control apparatus was required for a specific dialysis apparatus. This is due primarily to safety aspects and to ensure that, on the one hand, no germs are transmitted and that, on the other hand, no unauthorized access to the dialysis apparatus takes place. Since life-sustaining measures for the patient are occasionally performed on the dialysis apparatus or on other medical apparatuses, it should be ensured that no unauthorized access can be gained to the dialysis apparatus via the remote control apparatus. Basically, different functions on the dialysis apparatus can be remote controlled, such as controlling entertainment functions for the patient during a dialysis treatment, processing alarm indications and basically all functions which can be controlled by a user via the user interface of the medical apparatus.
In practice, a plurality of dialysis apparatuses are typically used in parallel in one room—a so-called dialysis station. If a separate remote control then has to be used for each one of the dialysis apparatuses, this proves to be very cumbersome in practice because the different remote control apparatuses can become mixed up or be mislaid, thus making remote control no longer possible. Therefore, from the point of view of the user, a universal remote control for a group of medical apparatuses is expedient.
In order to avoid this problem, it is known in the prior art to provide a remote control which is coupled to the apparatus, which is to be remote controlled in each case, in a preparatory phase. The coupling process or pairing process serves to establish bijective coupling between the medical apparatus to be remote controlled and the remote control apparatus. If a universal remote control is to be used for a group of different medical apparatuses, then prior to using the remote control apparatus a specific pairing code is input into the remote control apparatus in order to be able to establish a specific coupling between the remote control apparatus and the medical apparatus to be remote controlled. However, this previous approach proves to be impractical because it is not possible to react rapidly using the remote control because initially the pairing code must be input prior to each remote control operation.
In the field of entertainment electronics, it is known in particular to provide universal operation for different electronic apparatuses. For instance, it is known in particular from the publication “Point and Control: The Intuitive Method to Control Multi-device with Single Remote Control” Sung Soo Hong, Ju Il Eom, User Interface Lab, Digital Media and Communication R&D Center, Digital Media and Communication Business, Samsung Electronics Co. Limited, 416, Maetan-3 Dong, Suwon-City, to provide universal remote control in the form of a key-controlled small unit, in order to remote control different electronic apparatuses (televisions, video recorders etc.). As already mentioned above, a pairing process is provided in order then to be able to adjust the universal remote control specifically to the remote control of the electronic apparatus to be remote controlled in each case. The Samsung document defined above describes a Point and Control controller (PAC controller) which requires the remote controller to be directed initially to the electronic apparatus to be remote controlled, in order to exchange coupling information. This can be accomplished by the transmission of an optical key or key code; in this case this is done through the exchange of infrared light-emitting diode (LED) signals. After completion of the pairing process, remote control of the electronic apparatus can be effected. As is generally known and also illustrated in FIG. 5 of the Samsung document, the remote control apparatus is equipped for this purpose with operating elements (sliding controller, buttons and the like), in order to remote control the electronic apparatus 210, 220, 230 (see FIG. 5 of the Samsung document).
However, such a method which is expedient for general electronic apparatuses cannot be used in medical technology for safety reasons due to safety criteria for the medical field. On the one hand, it should be ensured that only authorized accesses to a specific medical apparatus can be acquired by authorized users via the respective remote control apparatus. It should also be ensured that the respective remote control apparatus also controls the intended dialysis apparatus and no other apparatus which is possibly located in the same room and likewise can be coupled to the remote control apparatus. In so doing, it should be ensured that the operation of the medical apparatus—either directly or indirectly via the remote control apparatus—does not transmit any pathogenic organisms and cross-contamination does not occur.
Previously, the medical apparatus had to be operated directly by contact with an operating element on the apparatus itself. This requires contact with the apparatus which, in principle, carries the risk of transmission of germs, in that, for example, a user of a first medical apparatus operates a further medical apparatus without disinfecting beforehand and therefore can transmit, for example, pathogenic germs or microorganisms to the second apparatus which could then ultimately be transmitted to the patient. Against this background, it is important to permit contactless apparatus coupling for remote operation and remote control of the medical apparatus, in order to avoid cross-contamination by a number of users of a common operating interface (for different medical apparatuses and patients).
A further aspect which does not allow known solutions form other fields of technology (such as general entertainment electronics) to be applied to the field of medical technology can be seen in the fact that dialysis apparatuses or other medical apparatuses are frequently used to perform life-sustaining measures. A secure and bijective control function or remote control is thus utilized. Typically, the medical apparatus is operated via a graphical user interface which allows the user to be able to effect his inputs on a display screen. Therefore, it is desirable that the remote control apparatus likewise has an approximately similar user interface which is adapted to the interface of the respective medical apparatus.